Simultaneous determination of glucose, xylose and metabolites in 2,3-butanediol fermentation broth by ion-exclusion liquid chromatography

An ion-exclusion liquid chromatographic method on a sulfonated polystyrene divinyl benzene column (Aminex HPX-87H) with a refractive index detector was used for the deternination of the co-substrates and metabolites in 2,3-butanediol fermentation broth. The mobile phase was 5 mmol/L sulfuric acid with a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min and the column temperature was 65 °C. Under the optimal conditions, the co-substrates (glucose and xylose) and 6 metabolites(2,3-butanediol, acetoin, ethanol, acetic acid, lactic acid and formic acid) were completely separated and simultaneously determined. All the correlation coefficients were between 0.9990 and 0.9999 with the recovery ranged from 98.8% to 103.2%. And the relative standard deviation was 0.23% to 2.1%. The method has been used to determine the co-substrates and metabolites in 2,3-butanediol fermentation broth.